


Babysitters

by wrappedupinabook



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Babysitting, Child, Domestic, F/F, Fluff, Happy, Kid - Freeform, Kids, cophine - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-24 22:22:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1619093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrappedupinabook/pseuds/wrappedupinabook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah has to ask Cosima for a favour, and she's not happy about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

‘Absolutely not Sarah’ said Cosima, pinning the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she tried to grab her breakfast out of the toaster without burning her hands.

‘Cosima please, you know I wouldn’t ask if you if you weren’t my only option.’ 

‘Ok, first,’ Cosima began, burning her hand in the process, ‘rude, ow, and secondly, you don’t, shit, have one option, you have, ow, zero options, because I, ow, am not an option you broken piece of shit toaster!’

‘Well there’s no need to get personal.’

‘Very funny, but as you might be able to tell things are a little busy at the moment so I really can’t…’ The British clone cut her off.

‘My ride’s here, so I’ll be round in half an hour, yeah?’ Sarah hung up before Cosima had a chance to retort, leaving her standing in the kitchen with smarting fingers and a thunderous expression. To make the moment perfect, the smoke alarm chose that moment to go off.

‘I thought I heard you cooking,’ Delphine said, emerging from the bedroom in her pyjamas, struggling to hold back a smile, ‘do you want a hand?’

‘Two new ones, thanks,’ Cosima held up her reddened digits and Delphine gently took hold of her wrists, gently kissing each finger, making Cosima giggle. ‘Hey, Sarah would be a perfect tissue match for a donor pair, wouldn’t she?’

‘Was that her on the phone?’ Delphine asked, throwing the completely ruined toast away and putting fresh slices of bread under the grill.

‘Yeah, she wanted to ask another favour’ Cosima took a sip from her cup of coffee, ‘as per usual. I never get a call form one of them where they’re like “hey Cosima, how are you? Still trying to save us all from an evil corporation and potential malignant genetic condition? Thanks for that by the way, I’m sure you’re very busy with that.” Delphine laughed at Cosima’s horrendous impression of Sarah, her English accent was almost as bad as her French. 

‘I’m sure it wasn’t that bad…’ she begun, but hesitated as Cosima violently shook her head.

‘She wants us to babysit Kira.’

‘Ah.’


	2. Chapter 2

The two scientists sat side by side on the couch, staring silently at the small child opposite them. They’d been in this position for several minutes, ever since Sarah had rushed in in a whirlwind of activity, deposited Kira in the middle of the apartment and dashed out. In the silence the clock on the mantelpiece seemed unnecessarily loud, and a battle of wills had evolved, with neither the women nor the child willing to be the first to look away. Eventually the silence got too much for Cosima, she wasn’t used to being still for any length of time at all.

‘So, Kira, what do you like to do?’

Kira shrugged, and Cosima felt her heart sink. How did kids work? She had absolutely no experience of how to act around them, talk to them, what they did, what they ate. Can you feed kids grown up food? Would they die? Luckily, Delphine came to her aid before her thoughts could become even more confused and panicky. 

‘Would you like to do some drawing Kira?’ The French woman asked, and Kira smiled and nodded. Relieved, Delphine continued, ‘Tante Cosima has some work to do today, but I can play with you, okay?’ Kira once again nodded affirmation, and Cosima squeezed Delphine’s hand in silent thanks for saving her from the creepy kid. Of course, Cosima didn’t know if Kira was a creepy kid, or if all children were this intense. Or maybe it was the genetic similarity that had her unnerved; Cosima could see elements of her face reflected in Kira, in their shared nose and around her eyes. Her movements were definitely more similar to Sarah's, but they had had limited contact outside the sensitive period, so maybe there were inherited elements to physicality? Surely then I'd have more in common with Sarah than Kira did, but she was letting herself get distracted. 

Cosima shook the thoughts from her head; she really did need to get back to work. Delphine had rooted out some graph paper and pens and she and Kira were now sat on the floor, doodling happily. Cosima smiled at how easily her lover managed to relax and allow herself to be childish, then stretched out her shoulders and walked over to her workbench. She booted up her laptop and was happy to see a new set of results had come in from the lab, something she actually understood for once.  
...

I took Cosima a few moments to realise a tiny hand was tugging at her sleeve, she had been too engrossed in analysing the cell structure of the scrapings they had taken. Eventually she wheeled around in her chair, almost knocking the little girl flying with a careless elbow. Kira didn’t seem to mind, proudly holding up a string of paper dolls she had made. Cosima smiled, and was about to spin back round when she saw Delphine cracking up in the background. Looking closer at the string of girls linked hand-to-hand, Cosima saw what the French woman had found so funny.

‘That’s Mom,’ Kira said, pointing at the doll on the far right, ‘and that’s you, and that’s Auntie Alison and Auntie Helena.’ The girl’s beaming smile was too much to ignore, and Cosima found herself smiling back almost without thinking. 

‘Can I stick that on the fridge?’ Cosima asked, and Kira nodded solemnly. Pinning it up with a SS Beagle fridge magnet, Cosima decided that maybe –sometimes- kids could be all right. ‘Hey Kira? Do you want to do an experiment?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's excited for tonight's episode?


	3. Chapter 3

'So the reaction between the acid and alkali produces Carbon Dioxide, which bubbles through the dish-soap, and produces a big... umm... schwoomy thing of foam.' Cosima concluded, her animated hand gestures nearly sending the bottle of vinegar in her hand flying. Delphine laughed at her sudden enthusiasm and pulled the bottle away from her before it slipped from her grip.

'Why don't you show her,' she asked Cosima, pouring two small cups of the strong smelling liquid and passing one to her girlfriend and one to the little girl stood on a chair at the edge of their kitchen table, it was hard to tell who was more excited about the impending experiment. It was so good to see Cosima like this, recently she had seemed weighed down by everything that had happened and everything she was afraid that might happen. Delphine quickly pushed the unwelcome thoughts to the back of her mind just in time to see the two girls pour their beakers into the big mixing bowl full of soap and baking powder. The reaction was surprising enthusiastic, a tidal wave of foam poured across the table so quickly that Cosima had to dive to rescue her laptop she had left at the far end.

'SSSSshhhhhhhhhhhhhugar' Cosima exclaimed, remembering their tiny house guest just in the nick of time. Kira probably wouldn't have noticed, she had started giggling as soon as the foam appeared and was now scooping up handfuls of the stuff like it was snow. That gave Cosima an idea, bundling up a handful of soap she theatrically put a finger over lips and winked at Kira before creeping up to Delphine, who'd dashed into the kitchen to get something to clean up the mess. Cosima hurled the ball of suds just as Delphine turned, catching her neatly in the centre of her chest. For a second she stood frozen in shock and Cosima worried she had overstepped the mark, then Kira broke the tension by hurling a blob of foam right into the back of Cosima's head. When Cosima whipped round to retaliate she felt Delphine's hand as she slid the wet mess down the back of her shirt. This was war.

.....

When Sarah walked in, Delphine and Cosima were trying to launch a counter attack against Kira, who had concealed herself behind the sofa and was popping up, throwing surprisingly accurate blobs of phone at the two scientists. Hovering in the fresh hold, Sarah tried to decide whether to yell or laugh, she had considered Cosima the sensible clone, but here and now...

Sarah grabbed a handful of foam and slid to join Kira in her hiding place, ignoring the loud protests coming fro across the room.

After last goodbyes had been said and they had finally (finally) managed to get all the foam cleaned away, Cosima and Delphine sat on the couch, enjoying a glass of wine and each others quiet company. Eventually, Delphine stirred her foot and glanced across at her girlfriend, working her way through an essay on stem-cell development in artificial matrices. 

'Admit it,' said Delphine finally, enjoying the way the girl across from her stirred instantly at the sound of her voice.

'Admit what?' Cosima asked, pretending to focus on the page in front of her, as if she could ignore the woman she was sat beside for even an instant.

'Kids can be fun, sometimes.'

'Maybe they don't completely suck, all the time,' Cosima admitted reluctantly, 'but I still think I prefer adult company.' With a knowing grin, Delphine reached across to the side table and clicked off the lamp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to wrap it up, anyone got a prompt for my next one?


End file.
